FREE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE CALL open to public & media at 8pm ET, SUNDAY, JUNE 26
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT BPD, CALL 1-641-715-3300, PIN 198878#

National Nonprofit Provides Essential Resources and Services
For People with Borderline Personality Disorder and Their Families

National Education Alliance for Borderline Personality Disorder offers free Web-based and other support to chronically underserved BPD population

Rye, NY – Experts at the National Education Alliance for Borderline Personality Disorder (NEA-BPD), an all-volunteer nonprofit organization, are working extra hard this week to ensure that more people with borderline personality disorder (BPD), their families and friends have greater access to information about the disorder and effective treatment. “The front page article in The New York Times yesterday about Marsha M. Linehan, Ph.D., drew welcomed, long overdue public attention to the disorder,” said NEA-BPD President Perry D. Hoffman, Ph.D. “We want to be sure the people impacted by this disorder find accurate information, encouragement and hope. Sunday’s conference call and our website – www.BorderlinePersonalityDisorder.com – are the first places to start.”

NEA-BPD is hosting a free international conference call, open to the public and media, at 8pm Eastern Time on Sunday, June 26. “BPD is the most misunderstood and maligned mental illness,” Hoffman said. “Better informing the public and people with BPD will help remove the stigma and help more people with BPD and their families get the assistance they need.” (There is no charge for the call other than charges callers may incur from their phone carrier if they do not have an unlimited calling and long-distance plan.)

The organization’s website is home to the most comprehensive BPD resource library in the world, free of charge and fully accessible to the public with over 100 video and audio tapings of the leading BPD experts, Hoffman said.

Leading BPD clinician and researcher Marsha M. Linehan, Ph.D. made history by announcing that she, too, suffered from the disorder many years ago. The challenges she faced and conquered served, in part, as her motivation to develop Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), she said.

“Since the advent of DBT – the most evidence-based treatment for BPD – there has been a sea change, with the word ‘hope’ now part of the landscape of the disorder,” Dr. Hoffman said.

About Borderline Personality Disorder

”More than five percent of Americans suffer from BPD in their lifetimes, more than bipolar and schizophrenia combined,” she said. “Yet, the vast majority of people with the disorder, their families and friends, and many mental health professionals don’t know where to turn for information or help. That’s the gap the National Education Alliance for Borderline Personality Disorder has as its mission to fill.”

BPD is a “devastating mental illness that centers on the inability to manage emotions effectively,” Hoffman explained. “It is a disorder that occurs in the context of relationships. While the symptoms vary widely, with 256 different ways the disorder can present itself, symptoms include intense, unstable and conflicted close relationships, fear of real or imagined abandonment, impulsivity, mood lability, bodily self-harm, and suicide. The last two symptoms are often seen as the hallmarks of the disorder but need not be present for one to have the disorder. It’s a very serious illness – ten percent of adults with BPD commit suicide and one-third of the young people who commit suicide have features of BPD.”

While some persons with BPD are high functioning in several areas of their lives, private lives may be in turmoil. “The high incidence of BPD means we all probably know someone with undiagnosed BPD who is suffering without the necessary diagnosis and treatment. People from every walk of life are affected, including CEOs of major corporations, professional athletes, Hollywood stars, academic scholars, politicians,” Dr. Hoffman said. “Others are unable to work and require economic support. Either way, people with BPD and their families often do not know that the symptoms and behaviors causing havoc and pain are, in fact, a mental illness – borderline personality disorder. A commonly expressed sentiment after learning about BPD is, ‘If only we had known….”

NEA-BPD Web-based Resources and Services

More than 100 audio files and videos available free of charge on the National Education Alliance for Borderline Personality Disorder website feature conference presentations by some of the world’s foremost experts on the disorder. Expert guidelines for families and peer-reviewed journal articles are also posted.

Research funded by a grant awarded to Dr. Hoffman by the National Institute of Mental Health found that family members who attended the course experienced a decline in grief, depression and sense of burden, and an increase in empowerment.

NEA-BPD also sponsors many of the nation’s most influential conferences on BPD each year, where leading researchers and clinicians advance knowledge about, and a better understanding of, the disorder and its symptoms, diagnosis and treatment. A calendar of upcoming events is available at www.BorderlinePersonalityDisorder.com.

About the National Education Alliance for Borderline Personality Disorder

NEA-BPD is the nation’s leading nonprofit organization providing information about BPD for people with the disorder, their families and friends, and mental health professionals. The organization seeks to “Advance the BPD Agenda” by raising public awareness, providing education, and promoting research about BPD through a variety of programs. Staffed by volunteering family members and professionals, NEA-BPD led successful efforts to secure the U.S. Congress designation of May as the annual National Borderline Personality Disorder Month, beginning in 2008 (HR 1005). They also led the efforts that resulted in the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) designating people with BPD as one of its priority populations.

With partial funding from the National Institute of Mental Health, NEA-BPD has hosted more than 35 conferences worldwide, featuring internationally recognized BPD researchers and clinicians.

The training begins Friday evening September 10th with a 6 pm dinner on the UCLA campus. The training will continue Saturday and Sunday from 8 am until 6 pm. Breakfasts, snacks, and lunches will be served. Participants pay $150.00 to cover the cost of the meals and course materials.

For more information on the conference and logistics in Los Angeles email info@bpdla.com.

April 15, 2008

U.S. House of Representatives Supports May as Borderline Personality Disorder Awareness MonthAn Important Step in Raising Awareness

NEW YORK, NY – The National Education Alliance for Borderline Personality Disorder (NEA-BPD) and the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) commended the U.S. House of Representatives for its recent Resolution supporting May as Borderline Personality Disorder Awareness Month.

On April 1, 2008, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved the bipartisan House Resolution (H. Res. 1005) sponsored by Representatives Thomas Davis (R-VA) and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) to support the goals and ideals of a Borderline Personality Disorder Awareness Month. Representative Davis stated that “Raising awareness of this disease is an important first step toward getting the recognition and research dollars that, hopefully, can help future victims and their families avoid the enormous suffering this disease causes.”

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) afflicts 4 million adults and adolescents. BPD is a leading cause of suicide, with a suicide rate 400 times the rate of the general public. BPD has a combination of symptoms, including intense fears of abandonment, episodes of rage, self-injury, substance abuse and impulsive behavior. Many with BPD are unable to work. Others may be high functioning in certain settings, though their private lives and relationships are often in turmoil.

Relatively new as an official diagnosis, BPD is decades behind in research, treatment, awareness and family education. Although BPD is as common as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, it is far less known.

According to Perry D. Hoffman, Ph.D., President of NEA-BPD, “BPD is the most misunderstood mental illness, and consequently is often under-recognized and misdiagnosed. Despite the many myths, research shows that there is much HOPE for recovery.”

Michael Fitzpatrick, Executive Director of NAMI, praised Congress, stating that “The designation of May as Borderline Personality Disorder Awareness Month is an important opportunity to highlight the seriousness and magnitude of this debilitating condition, as well as to draw public, professional and media attention to this mental illness.”

For more information, contact NAMI’s help line, (800) 950-NAMI, or website at www.nami.org, or visit the NEA-BPD website at www.neabpd.org (includes a tool kit for raising community awareness).

About the National Education Alliance for Borderline Personality Disorder (NEA-BPD) – NEA-BPD is a not-for-profit organization started in 2001 by a group of persons with BPD, persons with a relative with BPD, and a mental health professional. NEA-BPD holds annual conferences to disseminate the latest scientific research on causes and treatment of BPD to researchers, clinicians, persons with BPD and family members. See www.neabpd.com

About the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) – NAMI is the nation’s largest grassroots organization for people with mental illness and their families. Founded in 1979, NAMI has affiliates in every state and in more than 1,100 local communities across the country. See www.nami.org.

August 20, 2007

NEA-BPD Announces Online Scientific Research Forum

The National Education Alliance for Borderline Personality (NEA-BPD) is pleased to announce the launching of the Borderline Personality Disorder Scientific Forum at www.bpdforum.com. The mission of the site is to host an international online research community for scientists to advance scientific knowledge on borderline personality disorder (BPD). The site will: i) provide a forum that fosters dialogue, networking, and the sharing of the current findings on BPD and ii) host the streaming of the annual research-based conferences of NEA-BPD.

A web program has been designed specifically for the site with functions that allow for discourse among its scientific members. The site offers the opportunity to have running dialogue/commentaries on conference proceedings, recent publications and relevant scientific issues that impact BPD and co-occurring disorders, on articles in draft on which feedback is invited, on potential collaborations, as well as other salient items and issues that impact BPD. Members need to register prior to receiving site privileges.

Co-Chairs of the Scientific Forum Advisory Board are John G. Gunderson, MD, Harvard Medical School, and John M. Oldham, MD, The Menninger Clinic. Scientific Editor of the site is Kenneth R. Silk, MD, University of Michigan.

Charles Swenson, M.D. Dr. Swenson graduated from Harvard College and Yale Medical School. He joined the faculty of Cornell University Medical College in 1982, where for five years he directed a long-term psychoanalytically-oriented inpatient program for patients with personality disorders. Beginning in 1987, Dr. Swenson developed and directed inpatient, outpatient, and day treatment programs for […]